National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) Chair George Murugara has revealed that Kenyans will likely go for a referendum to actualise some of the proposals contained in the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) report.
Speaking during an interview on Sunday, the Tharaka MP stated that the NADCO report had made far-reaching proposals including altering the structure of the government.
Explaining the way forward, he stated that this cannot be achieved through a parliamentary bill but through a popular vote by Kenyans.
“There are areas that we must go to the referendum. We will be isolating what is for parliament to pass and what to go to referendum,” he stated.
“Areas that touch on the structure of government and structure of parliament will be approved through a referendum.”
On the structure of government, Murugara remarked that the issue will not be put into a referendum if the proposed post of Prime Minister does not have powers that go beyond that of a cabinet secretary.
The parliamentarian further disagreed with sentiments made by Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka that the Bills prepared by NADCO should not be amended by Parliament.
He explained that while the NADCO committee may propose bills, JLAC had a legal mandate to ensure constitutional conformity.
“As regards the constitution, we also have to look at whether the bills proposed are constitutionally viable. We will see if the constitution can accommodate such amendments in any of the articles,” he countered Kalonzo.
The Tharaka MP further clarified that there was no animosity between Kenya Kwanza and Azimio in regard to the implementation of the NADCO report.
He expressed caution that there may be issues of contention once the teams started discussing the bills proposed in detail.
Currently, he explained that NADCO had prepared 8 key laws, four of which had already been published and the rest needed JLAC scrutiny before publishing.
“They have not made constitutional bills. Those were left to us, the drafts they have we will have to look at them. Those are not proposals yet,” he explained.
